Rocking and NOT Rolling in NYC

Went to NYC last weekend for the Youth Bike Summit 2014. It was awesome. These young people have such energy and drive to make the world around them a better place, not just for themselves and their neighborhoods, but for the future of the planet!

I went with the Phoenix Bikes crew. They're a non-profit earn-a-bike program that I've been working with to get ideas of how to start one in our neck of the woods. The kids are awesome and the quasi-adults who traveled with us were amazing. I say quasi because ... well, keep reading.

Friday evening the kids were making signs for the procession on Saturday. Lots of paint, lots of 'get to know you'.

In plaid shirt, one quasi-adult, Stephen. He's close enough to them in age that he's very silly with them but still (ahem) responsible.

In the red shirt, Edoardo.  Same status as Stephen.  So why quasi?

Well, on Sunday when my friend Amy was traveling upstairs via elevator to the conference site, she heard singing in the elevator shaft. Turns out that some people were stuck in a different elevator. They were bored so they were singing.  Turns out they had done the "everybody jump" at the same time thing and stopped the elevator.  Turns out they were from Phoenix.  Turns out both Stephen and Edoardo were part of it. HA HA

On Saturday morning we listened to a keynote speaker or two and then had to move the entire Summit to a different building for the breakout sessions. This being NY, we had to make a procession of it!  So, lead by Batala (a women's drumming group) and holding our signs from the night before, we went 3 blocks to the second site. This was probably my favorite moment. Here we were, tourists, in a procession, and tourists were filming us as "typical NY" behavior. SO much fun!

This is one of the most important things I gleaned from the breakouts. These are some rules the youth have come up with at one of the bike clubs for the ADULTS to observe.

And on Sunday, instead of going to the last session, I visited with my husband's cousin and had a great time. They didn't really know each growing up, so it's fun to meet her -- it's like family, only none of the emotional stuff, but closer than an interesting stranger!

Here we are -- a selfie at the East River.  It was BRUTAL cold!

Good times. And why NOT rolling?  We took our helmets so we could try the Citibikes but the bike lanes were covered with snow and slush so we passed.  No rolling...